3. Sandblast your sense of humor

“Neil Armstrong practiced for the moon landing on the Langjökull glacier. Michael Jackson’s been here, too.”

“Have some rotten shark -- it’s a delicacy.”

All delivered with a face as straight as a frozen larval plain.

It’s often hard to tell what’s meant to be funny and what’s not, but considering Icelanders respond to jokes about as expressionlessly as they tell them, it doesn’t really matter.

4. Don’t turn your nose up at a ram’s testicle

Is there any member of the animal kingdom -- or any part of the animal -- that isn’t on the menu in Iceland?

The country’s traditional dishes reflect the constant threat of starvation faced by early Icelanders in a land where neither fauna nor flora are abundant.

Rams’ testicles, sheep’s head, puffin, whale and fermented (read “rotten”) shark are all consumed, if not with relish, then at least consumed.

"Say cheese, very old cheese." Siggi Gardarsson snaps people trying fermented shark for the first time.“Most tourists are interested in the fermented shark,” says Siggi Gardarsson, of Kolaportið market in central Reykjavik.

He photographs his customers’ expressions on trying the “delicacy” and posts them on his Facebook page.